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ADDRKSS 

:^^ OF 

HON. J. B. forake:r 

ON THE 

LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

OF 

SAIvIVEON P. CHASE, 

Late CKief Justice of tKe United States, 

DEI,IVERED BEFORE THE 

CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATERS 

AT SPRINGFIELD, IIvLINOIS, 

OCTOBER 7, 1905. 



May it Please the Court : 

The career of Chief Justice Chase was too eventful 
and too intimately connected with the great duties of a 
great period in our country's history to be justly por- 
trayed in a brief address such as is called for on an occa- 
sion of this character. 

Mere glimpses are all that can be taken of even the 
most important features of his life, while many minor 
events must be entirely ignored, which, under other cir- 
cumstances, might be dwelt upon with both interest and 
propriety. 

Fortunately in that respect, what we are most con- 
cerned about here to-day is not his childhood, or his pri- 
vate life, domestic or professional, but his public life, 
and particularly that part of it which led up to and in- 
cluded the Chief Justiceship. 



He came of good stock, and had the good fortune to 
be born poor, and to be blessed with a powerful 
physique, an attractive personality, a dignified presence, 
a strong intellectual endowment, and such a predisposi- 
tion to seriousness as to make frivolities of all kinds im- 
possible. 

He was also fortunate in being identified with both_ 
New England and the West, for thus he acquired T^m 
culture and refinement of the one section, and the vigo- 
rous and independent thought and progressive activity 
of the other. 

He spent several years of his boyhood in the family of 
his uncle. Bishop Chase, of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, who was stationed during this period at Worth- 
ington and Cincinnati, Ohio. After this he became a stu- 
dent at Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 
the classical course with that mental power of analysis 
and logical thought and expression which nothing can 
develop quite so well as a thorough study of the Latin 
and Greek languages. 

He next spent three years in Washington, during 
which period he read law under William Wirt, then At- 
torney General of the United States. 

The relation of student and preceptor seems, however, 
to have been little more than nominal, since it was re- 
lated by Mr. Chase that Mr. Wirt never asked him but 
one question about his studies. He also states that when 
he came to be examined for admission to the bar he 
found himself so illy prepared that he passed with dif- 
ficulty, and chiefly, as he always thought, because he in- 
formed Mr. Justice Cranch, who admitted him, that he 
intended to locate in the West. 

During his stay in Washington he had many advan- 
tages that compensated in some degree for this lack of 
preparation for the practice of his profession. 



Gift 
Author 
(Person) 



He was on terms of social intimacy with Mr. Wirt's 
family, whose position was such that he was not only 
brought in contact with all the prominent men then in 
control of public affairs, but also with all the great ques- 
tions with which they were at the time concerned. 

Being of a studious and serious turn of mind, with such 
experiences, and amid such surroundings, he naturally 
drifted into the study of the political problems of the 
day, so that when in 1830, at the age of 22 years, he 
opened a law office in Cincinnati, he was already almost 
as much occupied with affairs of State as about legal 
principles. 

He chose Cincinnati for his future home because at 
that time it was the largest and most flourishing city of 
the West, and on that account gave the most promise of 
opportunity to a young lawyer ambitious to achieve suc- 
cess and distinction. 

He did not foresee that the slavery question was soon 
to become acute, and that he was to entertain views and 
take a position with respect to that institution of such 
ultra character that a less hospitable community for him 
could scarcely have been found in any Northern State 
than that border city, situated on the line that divided 
the free from the slave States, was to become. 

If he had foreseen all this it probably would not have 
changed his course, for he was so constituted by nature 
that he might have felt that duty required him to station 
himself at that outpost as a sort of advance guard of the 
anti-slavery movement. 

For several years he labored industriously to gain a 
foothold in his profession without making any more than 
ordinary progress. 

His biographers record that during this period he had 
time for social functions, magazine articles, some news- 
paper work, and, most important of all, for a revision 



and editing of the statutes of Ohio which he published 
with a very able introduction in the nature of an histori- 
cal sketch of the State and its developments. Still, how- 
ever, he forged ahead, not rapidly, nor brilliantly, but 
surely, constantly and substantially. 

His clients gradually increased in numbers and the 
work they brought him improved in quality until he had 
a very fair business, almost altogether of a commercial 
character, but his practice was still modest, involving 
neither large amounts nor complicated questions, and 
his position at the bar, although respectable, was yet 
comparatively humble and uninfluential, when, sud- 
denly, unexpectedly and unintentionally, he was drawn 
into the controversy about Slavery and was started on a 
public career in the course of which he quickly became a 
political leader and achieved much fame as a lawyer. 

ANTI-SLAVERY LEADER. 

The mobbing in 1836 of the Philanthropist, an Anti- 
Slavery Newspaper, published in Cincinnati by James G. 
Bimey, aroused him, as it did thousands of others, to the 
intolerance of the slave spirit and the necessity of resist- 
ing its encroachments by protecting Free Speech and a 
Free Press if the rights of the white man, as well as the 
rights of the free colored man, were to be preserved. He 
at once took a pronounced stand as an anti-slavery man 
although he was always careful, then, and afterwards, 
until the Civil War, to declare and explain that he was 
not an abolitionist, and that he had no desire to change 
the Constitution or interfere with slavery in any way m 
the States where it was already established. 

Although most of the time "out of line" he claimed to 
be a Whig until 1841, but professed to believe in the 
States Rights, Strict Construction doctrine of the Jeffer- 



son School of Democracy, and thus reconciled his atti- 
tude with respect to slavery in the States and his oppo- 
sition to its extension beyond the States by the conten- 
tion that the States in their sovereign capacity had a right 
to authorize and protect the institution, although a great 
evil, if they saw fit to do so ; and that the States had this 
power because it belonged to sovereignty and had not 
been delegated by the Constitution to the Federal Gov- 
ernment; and that because such power was not dele- 
gated to the General Governmient, it had no power to 
authorize, protect, or even continue the institution in 
any district, territory or jurisdiction over which it di- 
rectly governed. 

Both his politics and his law were severely criticised 
for they made it impossible for him to fully satisfy any 
party or faction of that time. 

He did not go far enough for the Abolitionists, and 
went too far for both the Whigs and Democrats. One 
repudiated him because he was pro-slavery as to slavery 
in the States, and the other because he not only opposed 
the extension of slavery into the Territories but advo- 
cated its abolition in the District of Columbia, for which 
he is credited with drafting one of the earliest petitions 
presented to Congress. It naturally followed that he 
soon had trouble to know to what political party he be- 
longed ; a trouble that continued to plague him all his life 
and apparently led him to try in turn to belong to all of 
them, but without finding satisfaction in any, not except- 
ing those practically of his own creation. 

Thus we find him calling himself a Henry Clay Na- 
tional Republican in 1832, a Harrison Whig in 1836, an 
out and out Whig in 1840, a Liberty man in 1844, a Free 
Soiler in 1848, a Democrat in 1851, so enrolling himself 
in the Senate, a Liberty man again in 1852, a Republican 
in 1856, and afterward until it was foreseen that he had 



no chance against Grant to be nominated by the Repub- 
lican Party for the Presidency in 1868, then suddenly 
becoming a Democrat again, seeking the nomination 
by that party, and in that connection claiming that aside 
from slavery questions, so far as basic principles were 
concerned, he had been a Democrat all his life. 

On top of all this we find him writing to a friend 
shortly prior to the m.eeting of the Liberal Convention 
that nominated Horace Greeley at Cincinnati in 1872, 
that if it should be thought that his nomination would 
promote the interests of the country he would not refuse 
the use of his name, thus showing a willingness to 
change parties once more on the condition expressed. 

It is probably safe to say that he had membership in 
more political parties, with less enjoyment in any of 
them and with less mutual obligation arising therefrom 
than any other public man America has produced. 

At any rate it was with this kind of zig-zag party affil- 
iations he laid the foundations and built on them the 
claims on which he was elected to the Senate in January, 
1840, by a fusion of the Democrats, Anti-Slavery Dem- 
ocrats, Democratic Free Soilers and Independent Free 
Soilers, and felt that he had a right to complain, as he 
did, because the Whigs, Anti-Slavery Whigs, and Free 
Soil Whigs would not also vote for him. In making that 
com.plaint, he ignored the fact that it was charged and 
believed by the Whigs that his election was brought 
about by a bargain, which, among other things, provided 
that tv/o contesting Democrats, enough to give that 
party a majority, were to be admitted to seats in the 
House. There was undoubtedly a clear understanding 
arrived at but like some other men, of more modern 
times, such deals appear not to have been offensive to 
him, when made in his own behalf, since thereby the 
praiseworthy result was reached of securing his services 



to the public. They were bad and to be execrated only 
when made by others, and in the interests of somebody 
else, whose services were not, in his opinion, so im- 
portant. 

His complaint was not, however, without plausibility, 
for he at least had equal claims on all the parties and fac- 
tions named, except the two Independent Free Soilers, 
to whom he really owed his election, since he had be- 
longed to all, had repudiated all, and had been repu- 
diated by all. 

And yet, most of these party changes, perhaps all ex- 
cept that of 1868, came about naturally, and, from his 
standpoint, strange as it may appear, consistently also. 
His opposition to slavery being paramount, and the 
Whig Party failing and refusing to become an anti-slav- 
ery party, he was lukewarm and irregular in its support 
until the death of Harrison and the accession of Tyler, 
when he lost all hope of it ever meeting his views. He 
then openly deserted it and joined the Liberty party 
and at once devoted himself to its reorganization and 
upbuilding, which party, however, he in turn, aban- 
doned, and helped to disorganize to make way for the 
Free Soil Party of 1848, which he actively helped to 
form by bringing about a fusion of Liberal Party men. 
Barnburners, Anti-Slavery Whigs, Anti-Slavery Demo- 
crats, and all other dissatisfied classes who could be 
gathered into the fold ; a combination of elements incon- 
gruous as to all questions except that of hostility to slav- 
ery, about which they had the most fiery zeal. This 
party, so constituted, nominated Martin Van Buren as 
their candidate for the Presidency, in a Convention over 
which Mr. Chase presided, and of which he was the dom- 
inating spirit, but they largely strengthened themselves 
and their cause by the ringing declarations of their plat- 
form, of which he was the chief author, for "Free Soil, 
Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men." 



8 



What Chase evidently most wanted in connection with 
that Convention was the substance and not the shadow 
— the platform in preference to the candidate, for it was 
well known that the candidate had no chance of an elec- 
tion, and would therefore pass away with the campaign, 
while the principles enunciated would be educational, 
and would live to do service in the future. 

Thus it was that while manifesting instability, if not 
contempt, as to party ties and associations, by flitting 
out and in from one party to another, he was yet stead- 
fastly, zealously and efficiently making continuous war 
on slavery, and all the while coming into ever closer affil- 
iation and co-operation with the out-and-out Abolition- 
ists; for while nominally working only as an anti-slav- 
ery man, he was largely aiding in the development of a 
radical Abolition sentiment. His progress in this respect 
was inevitable, for as the discussion proceeded he was 
necessarily more and more drawn into it — explaining, 
defending and advocating his views. 

All the while his horizon was widening, and he was 
becoming acquainted by correspondence and otherwise, 
with the leading anti-slavery men of all the other States, 
both East and West. This multiplied the demands upon 
him for an expression of his sentiments, and so during 
this period he wrote many articles for the newspapers 
and magazines, attended political conventions, wrote 
platforms, and addresses to the public, and made numer- 
ous speeches on all kinds of public occasions. Being a 
forcible and ready writer, and a logical and convincing 
speaker, although too deliberate to be magnetic, he was 
constantly in demand, and as constantly making valuable 
contributions to the general literature that was used 
against slavery by its enemies of all shades and degrees. 

Along with this growth of political prominence and 



influence before the public, there came to him, as a law- 
yer, a series of cases, all arising, in one form and another, 
under the Fugitive Slave Law, by which he was given 
repeated opportunities, which he well improved, of de- 
veloping and presenting to the country the legal aspects 
of the controversy in a way that attracted universal at- 
tention to his cause and to himself as one of its ablest 
and most powerful exponents. 

He was not successful except on some technical 
points in any of these cases, and probably did not expect 
to be ; and in most if not all of them, he was paid inade- 
quate fees, if any at all; but he labored and strove in 
them with all the energy that confidence of success and 
the most ample compensation could inspire. He thor- 
oughly and exhaustively briefed them, and raised and in- 
sisted upon every point that could be made, both techni- 
cal and substantial. In one of these cases that went to 
the Supreme Court of the United States, he artfully 
placed before the whole country, as well ^he Court, all 
his constitutional and other arguments not only against 
Slavery but also against a Fugitive Slave Law, and par- 
ticularly against its application to any but the original 
thirteen States, and therefore against its application to 

Ohio. 

He was overruled, as he must have expected he would 
be, but he was purposely addressing himself to the 
country as well as the Court, and had a confidence, that 
subsequent events vindicated, that he would eventually 
secure a verdict at the hands of his fellowmen that would 
right the whole system of wrong that he was combating. 

IN THE SENATE. 

t 

In the Senate he was out of harmony from first to last 
with both the Democrats and the Whigs. He at first in- 



lO 



sisted upon calling himself a Democrat, although the 
Democrats who were in the majority practically dis- 
owned him, and in the Committee assignments refused 
him any substantial recognition. This did not seem to 
either embarrass or handicap him. He had, in conse- 
quence of being practically relieved from Committee 
work, all the more time for the consideration of the slav- 
ery question, which was then rapidly becoming more and 
more the all absorbing question of the hour. 

He had not been long in his seat until he found oppor- 
tunity to speak on that subject. From that time until the 
end of his term he was the real leader of the anti-slavery 
forces of both the Senate and the House. They were 
few in number, but they were able and forceful men, who 
stood up manfully and inspiringly for a sentiment which 
was then unpopular but which was soon to control the 
nation. 

His most notable efforts were made in opposition to 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. He was overwhelmingly 
beaten when the vote was taken, but he had so crippled 
and weakened the measure in the popular mind, that 
Douglass soon realized that while he had won the day in 
Congress, he had lost it before the people, who had be- 
come so aroused that he quickly saw that the long pre- 
dicted dissolution of the Whig Party and the revolt of 
the Free Democrats were at hand, and that a new party 
was forming that was destined to change the entire com- 
plexion of the political situation and bring to naught all 
he had gained. 

The debate was one of the most acrimonious and, 
measured by its far-reaching consequences, one of the 
most important that ever occurred in the American 
Congress. 

Chase was the target for all the shafts of malice and 
ridicule, but through it all he bore himself with dignity 



II 

and serenity, and showed such sincerity, zeal and ability, 
that, notwithstanding his obnoxious views, he gained the 
friendship of most of his colleagues and the respect of 
the whole country. Flis personal character was always 
upright, and now as he came to the end of a turbulent 
term in the Senate, where he had been disowned and in 
many ways slighted and mistreated by both parties, he 
saw, what he had probably long foreseen, a new party 
forming, of giant strength and high purpose, which he 
had done as much as any other man, if not more, to cre- 
ate, and of which he was an acknowledged leader. 

The Democrats being in control of the Ohio Legis- 
lature, took his place in the Senate away from him, and 
gave it to George E. Pugh. But instead of punishing 
and retiring him, as they designed, they only made the 
way open and easy for him to become, after a most spir- 
ited campaign that attracted the attention of the whole 
country, the first Republican Governor of Ohio, and as 
such a prominent candidate for the Presidency, 

THE PRESIDENCY IN 1856. 

He was conscious of the work he had done in organiz- 
ing the new party, and realized that he had greatly 
strengthened it by leading it to its first great victory in 
the third State of the Union, as Ohio then was, while in 
New York and Pennsylvania his party associates had 
failed. With his strong mental powers, long experience 
in public life, and familiarity with all the public affairs 
and questions to be dealt with, it was but natural that 
under the circumstances, he should expect the honor of 
leading his party, as its candidate for the Presidency, in 
its first great national contest, and that he should experi- 
ence keen disappointment when he saw his claims re- 
jected, and the honor conferred on a younger man, who 



12 



had no special claims, except the popularity of an idol 
of the hour, who had won his prominence and the public 
favor not by participation in the fierce struggles and edu- 
cational experiences through which the country had 
been passing, but by the success of a number of daring 
and spectacular explorations. He was solaced, however, 
by the thought that he was yet a young man, who could 
wait and grow with his party, and become its candidate 
later when the chances of success were more certain. 
He was in a good position for such a program. 

GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

But aside from all such considerations he was natu- 
rally ambitious to make a good Governor, and such he 
was. His administration was conducted on a high plane, 
and in all respects he showed himself a capable and effi- 
cient Executive. Throughout his two terms the slavery 
question, through repeated Fugitive Slave Law cases, 
was almost constantly occupying public attention. As 
Chief Executive of the State he now had an official re- 
sponsibility for the due execution of the laws and the 
process of the Courts, and had great difficulty to meet 
the requirements of public sentiment and avoid a con- 
flict with national authority. While in some instances 
severely criticised he appears with respect to all these 
delicate and troublesome controversies to have fairly 
and faithfully performed his duty. At any rate when he 
retired from his office in January i860, his party was 
greatly strengthened, and he had gained in general esti- 
mation as a man of pronounced convictions, honorable 
purposes and high qualifications for the public service. 
This was emphasized by a re-election to the Senate for 
the term commencing March 4th, 1861. 



13 



Thus it came to pass that in i860 he ranked oificially 
and personally, and deservedly so, with the foremost 
men of the nation. He seemed to have just and superior 
claims upon his party for its highest honor, and with a 
frankness amounting almost to immodesty — he set 
about securing it. 



PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE i860. 

He had friends in all sections of the country, and he 
called upon them to advocate and advance his cause. 
He appeared to think only Seward and Bates formidable 
rivals, and easily satisfied himself that his claims were 
superior to theirs, but his friends in different parts of the 
country, especially in his own State, which seems to 
have had factional divisions and differences then as well 
as in later years, soon found that while all acknowledged 
his abilities, general qualifications and high personal 
character, yet there was a strong feeling in many quar- 
ters of distrust as to his views on the tariff and other 
questions that Republicans deemed of vital importance. 
This was due not so much to any statements he had 
made on these subjects, for he had never talked or 
written very much except about slavery, as to his oft 
repeated insistence and reiterated declarations from time 
to time preceding the organization of the Republican 
party, that he was a Democrat, and that he adhered to 
all the principles of that party, except those with respect 
to slavery. 

In Ohio there was added a lingering resentment 
among m.any of the old Whig leaders for his apparently 
vacillating course as a party man, and especially for his 
combination with the Democrats to secure his election to 
the Senate in 1849. 



14 

Some of his friends were frank enough to tell him that 
his chances were not promising, but he listened more to 
those who told him what he wanted to hear, and, not- 
withstanding a divided delegation from his own State, 
and but few delegates from other States who favored 
him as their first choice, he industriously and optimisti- 
cally continued his canvass until the Convention met, 
and, giving him only forty-nine votes, dashed his hopes 
to the ground by the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. 

Much fault has been found with him for the manner 
in which he personally conducted his campaign for this 
nomination : He seems to have proceeded on the theory 
that "If he wanted the office he should ask for it," and to 
have not only asked but also in many instances to have 
insisted upon his right to support. 

His correspondence teems with an array of his claims, 
and with arguments in support of them, and with advan- 
tageous comparisons of them with the claims of others, 
and vv/^ith directions and suggestions to his friends how 
to advance his interests. 

It is to be regretted that a man of such lofty character, 
such high ability, and such long experience with men 
and public affairs, could have shown so little regard for 
propriety with respect to such a matter. 

The small vote he received in the Convention was 
probably due in some degree at least to the offense he 
gave in this way, for the sturdy, hard-headed m.en of that 
heroic time naturally disliked such self-seeking with re- 
spect to an office the duties and responsibilities of which 
were so grave that any man might well hesitate to as- 
sume them even when invited to do so. 

In all other respects his canvass was free from citi- 
cism. It was honest; there was no trickery attempted 
in connection with it — no promises were given, no bar- 
gains were made, no money was used. When it was 



15 

over he had nothing to regret except defeat, and he took 
that gracefully. He gave Mr, Lincoln hearty support, 
and was undoubtedly truly rejoiced by his election, for 
he saw in it the triumph of the principles for which he 
had been all his life contending, and the beginning of the 
end of slavery in the States as well as elsewhere. 

IN THE CABINET. 

Mr. Lincoln at the time of his election was underesti- 
mated by almost everybody, except those whom he was 
wont to call the plain, common people. They seemed 
to know him and his greatness by intuition, as it were. 
They had confidence in his sound common sense, and 
loved him for his homely manners, and simple straight- 
forward methods. They felt from the day of his nomina- 
tion that he would be elected ; and when he was elected, 
and the clouds began to gather, and one State after 
another seceded, there never came an hour when they 
did not implicitly rely on him to safely pilot them 
through whatever storms might come. He had their 
confidence from the first and he held it to the last. They 
never wavered either in their devotion to his leadership, 
or in their faith that he would eventually save the Union. 

From the very beginning they gave him also his right- 
ful place as the real leader, who outranked all his asso- 
ciates in public life, not only because he was President, 
but also, and more particularly, because of his natural 
endowments and qualities of mind and heart. 

But it was different with some of the leaders. Many of 
them were slow to acquire a just conception of his char- 
acter and abilities. They never thought of him seriously 
in connection with the Presidency until he was practi- 
cally nominated, and they did not think of him then, ex- 
cept as a sort of accidental compromise, who was not 



i6 



well qualified for the position. They regarded him as 
lacking not only the culture and refinement, but also 
the practical experience with public affairs that was es- 
sential to their successful administration. 

He came to the front so suddenly and unexpectedly 
that he had gone ahead of them and had been named by 
his party for its leader before they realized that they 
were being supplanted. His administration was organ- 
ized and fairly under way before they began to recognize 
their true relation to him. 

This was particularly true of Seward and Chase, who 
had been the chief, and as they long thought, almost the 
exclusive rivals, for the honors of party leadership. 

Both were invited to take seats in the Cabinet, and 
each accepted with the idea that, in addition to his own 
Department, he would be expected to bear, in large de- 
gree, the burdens of all the other Departments. Each 
semed to think the country would look to him rather 
than to Mr. Lincoln for the shaping of the policies to 
be pursued. There was some excuse for this in the fact 
that each had his ardent friends and admirers who en- 
couraged the idea, and because some of the leading 
newspapers seemed to think that Lincoln had called 
them into his counsels from consciousness of his defi- 
ciencies, and in recognition of their superior fitness for 
the work he had been called to perform. 

This thought — of the broader and more important 
duty of supervising the whole administration, seems for 
a time to have so occupied Chase's mind, that he did not 
at first realize, and perhaps never, fully, that his legiti- 
mate field at the head of the Treasury Department was 
full of duties of the highest importance and the amplest 
opportunities for conspicuous service. 

During all the time he was a member of the Cabinet, 
but particularly during the first months, he gave much 



17 

volunteer attention to duties outside his Department, 
particularly to those relating to the War Department; 
the organization of the army and the planning and con- 
ducting of campaigns ; he was an inveterate letter writer, 
and was constantly giving advice and making sugges- 
tions to apparently every one who would listen, includ- 
ing commanding officers in the field. 

Gradually, however, he came to more clearly under- 
stand that his own duties were enough, if properly 
looked after, to tax him to the utmost, and in time he 
came also to realize that Mr. Lincoln was the head of his 
own Administration, and the final arbiter of all contro- 
verted questions. 

By reason of this disposition and habit his work in the 
Cabinet was not so good as it might have been if he had 
concentrated his efforts in his own Department and had 
been properly alive from the outset to the seriousness of 
the situation he was called upon to meet. His fault in 
this latter respect was, however, common to all, for the 
war in its magnitude and duration exceeded all expecta- 
tions, and its demands multiplied with such frightful 
rapidity as to upset all calculations, thus making it well 
nigh impossible for him to keep pace with its growing 
requirements, and secure from Congress the authority 
and help necessary to enable him to carry out such plans 
as he formulated; and yet, notwithstanding all this, it 
would be difficult to exaggerate what he accomplished. 

He found his Department disorganized, but in the 
midst of the excitements of the hour and the exacting 
duties of a more important nature that fell upon him, 
he thoroughly re-organized it, introducing many reforms 
that greatly increased its efficiency. He found the Gov- 
ernment without funds or credit, and without adequate 
revenues to meet ordinary expenditures in time of peace, 



but he surmounted all such obstacles and made it suc- 
cessfully respond to the exigencies of war. 

With the necessity suddenly precipitated of providing 
for great armies and navies, and equipping and maintain- 
ing them, he would have had a hard task under the most 
favorable circumstances, but it was increased almost be- 
yond the power of description by an empty Treasury, 
a startling deficit, an impaired credit, an inadequate rev- 
enue, and eleven States in rebellion, with tens of thou- 
sands of copperhead sympathizers in every loyal State 
criticising and actively opposing in every way, short of 
overt acts of treason, every step he took or tried to take. 

He had all the help that able men in Congress and 
outside could give him by advice, and the suggestion of 
plans and methods, and ways and means, but after all 
he was the responsible official, whose duty it was to 
hear all, weigh all, and decide which plan of all the many 
suggested should be adopted, and then take upon himself 
the responsibility of recommending it and advocating it 
before the country and before the Congress, and if the 
necessary authority could be secured, executing it. 

His difficulties were further increased by the fact that 
the Republican Party was then new to power, and its 
members in public life had not yet learned to work in 
harmony. Many of them were strong and aggressive 
men who were slow to adopt the views of others with 
which they did not fully coincide. 

In consequence his recommendations were subjected 
to the keenest scrutiny and criticism from party asso- 
ciates, as well as opponents, and not infrequently they 
were materially modified or changed before they re- 
ceived statutory sanction, and in some instances entirely 
rejected. 

In all these experiences his high personal character 
and well recognized ability were of incalculable value 



19 

to him and his country. Whatever else might be said, 
nobody ever questioned the integrity of his purpose, the 
probity of his action, or the sincerity of his arguments. 

While in the light of subsequent events it is seen that 
much that he did might have been done better, yet when 
the circumstances and the lack of light and precedent 
under which he acted are fairly measured it is almost in- 
credible that he did so well. 

When we recall that great conflict we are apt to think 
only of its "pomp and circumstance" — of the deeds of 
heromism and daring — of the army and the navy — of the 
flying flags and the marching columns — of the services 
and sacrifices of those who fought and died — -forgetting 
that less fascinating but indispensable service, and the 
noble men who rendered it, of supplying "the sinews of 
war," without which all else would have been in vain. 

His labors in this behalf were incessant and herculean. 
On this occasion details are impossible. Suffice it to say 
that by every kind of taxation that could be lawfully de- 
vised he swelled the revenues to the full limit at which it 
was thought such burdens could be borne, and by every 
kind of security, certificates, notes and obligations that 
he could issue and sell or in any way use, he drew ad- 
vance drafts upon the Nation's resources. 

He met with many disappointments and discourage- 
ments, but he unflaggingly persevered, and finally suc- 
ceeded, approximately, to the full measure that success 
was possible. 

There were numerous transactions that might well be 
mentioned, because of the illustration they afford of the 
services he rendered, the difficulties he encountered, and 
of the kind of labor and effort he was constantly putting 
forth with members of Congress, bankers, editors and 
others to advance and uphold his views, develop and edu- 
cate public sentiment, and secure needed legislation and 



20 



support; but all are necessarily passed over, that some 
mention may be made of two subjects, with which he 
was so identified that even the briefest sketch of his 
public services should include some special reference to 
them. 

They were the issue of legal tender notes, hereinafter 
discussed in connection with the legal tender cases, and 
the establishment of the National Banking System, in- 
volving, as it did, the extinction of State Banks of issue. 

THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM. 

The establishment of a uniform National Banking 
System was, like most great measures, of gradual de- 
velopment. 

It was much discussed and many minds contributed to 
the working out of the details, but Chase seems to have 
a pretty clear claim to its general authorship. 

Upon him more directly than anybody else was im- 
pressed the necessity for some kind of reform in that re- 
spect, for while each citizen was experiencing difficulty 
in his dealings with individual banks he was compelled 
to deal with practically all of them, and, therefore, felt, 
in a consolidated form, the combined disadvantages that 
others suffered in detail. 

In view of what we now enjoy, and the ease with 
which, looking backward, it appears that it should have 
been brought about it seems incredible that an intelli- 
gent people should have so long suffered the inconveni- 
ences of the old System. 

It can be accounted for only from the fact that for the 
Government in a general way, and for the people in a 
commercial and general business sense, that was the day 
of small things, and it was tolerated because they were 
accustomed to it, and because there was a natural aver- 



21 



sion, especially on the part of the banks, to making radi- 
cal changes that were necessarily in some degree of an 
experimental character. 

But finally there came a precipitating cause, and the 
contest was inaugurated to substitute something better. 
The case was a plain one but the resistance was stub- 
bom. 

Aside from the universal and almost unbearable in- 
conveniences of doing business with a currency that had 
no uniformity of issue, appearance, or value ; and which 
had no proper safeguards against counterfeits and for- 
geries, was the fact that it was not possible for such a 
discredited and unsatisfactory System to render the Gov- 
ernment much substantial help in placing its loans or in 
conducting any of its important fiscal transactions. 

Chase saw clearly, and from the first, that such a Sys- 
tem could not co-exist with a uniform national system 
such as he contemplated, and that the existing State In- 
stitutions would not surrender their charters, and take 
new ones under an Act of Congress, unless they were 
offered more substantial advantages than the Govern- 
ment should be required to give, or instead were de- 
prived of the privilege of issuing their own notes, and 
that the best way to solve the problem was to tax their 
issues out of existence. 

It was a hard matter to bring others to agree with 
him. The opposing banks commanded in the aggregate 
a tremendous influence, and with the aid of doubting 
Congressmen and newspapers they long delayed, and 
finally so crippled the first Act that was passed, that it 
failed to provide an acceptable and successful plan 
largely because it left the State issues untouched. 

It continued so until the law was so amended as to em- 
brace practically all the recommendations Chase had 
made and insisted upon, including a tax of ten per cent. 



22 



on the issues of State Banks. This did not happen until 
he had quit the Treasury Department, but it was his 
plan and his work, consummated, that gave us freedom 
from the worst banking system that could be well im- 
agined, and substituted therefor one of the best any 
country has ever enjoyed. It was a work of high charac- 
ter and of enduring benefit to the whole country. It was 
the crowning act of his administration of the Treasury 
Department, if not of his whole life, and, coupled with 
his other successes, efititles him to rank, after Hamilton, 
who has had no equal, with Gallatin and Sherman, and 
the other great Secretaries who have held that high 
office. 

RELATIONS TO MR. LINCOLN. 

It was unfortunate for his influence then and his repu- 
tation now that at times he showed less satisfaction with 
his position and exhibited less cordial good-will in his re- 
lations to Mr. Lincoln than he should. Personal dis- 
appointment was probably the chief cause. From his 
first appearance in public life he was talked about for 
the Presidency, and almost from the beginning he talked 
about and for himself in that connection. Barring the 
indelicacy manifested, there was no impropriety in such 
talk until after he accepted a seat in the Cabinet. It was 
different after that, for while there was all the time more 
or less opposition cropping out to the renomination of 
Mr. Lincoln, yet there was never at any time enough to 
justify a member of his political household, who had been 
part of his administration and policies, in the encourage- 
ment of that opposition, particularly for his own benefit. 
That Chase was a passive candidate during all the time 
he was in the Cabinet and a good part of the time an 
active candidate, cannot be doubted. His many letters 



23 

and diary entries show this; not so much by his open 
advocacy of his claims as by criticisms of Mr. Lincoln 
and his manner of conducting the public business and the 
general encouragement he was giving and evidently in- 
tending to give to the opposition sentiment. 

He may not have realized fully the character of record 
he was making in this respect, for he was no doubt some- 
what blinded by the fact that he never could quite out- 
grow the idea that Lincoln did not deserve to be put 
ahead of him in i860, and that the country would surely 
sometime learn its mistake and right the wrong. In 
addition he had a conceit that he was of greater import- 
ance than he was getting credit for at the hands of the 
President, and that when he and the President differed 
about anything in his department the President should 
yield, as he always did, except in a few instances when 
his sense of duty and responsibility prevented. At such 
times he was especially liable to say and do peevish and 
annoying things. On a number of such occasions he 
went so far as to tender his resignation, accompanied 
each time with a letter expressing a deep sense of humil- 
ity but with an air of injured innocence that he no doubt 
keenly felt. Notwithstanding the trial it must have 
been for Mr. Lincoln to do so, he, each time, with singu- 
lar patience, that only the good of his country could have 
prompted, not only refused acceptance, but apparently 
placed himself under renewed obligations by insisting 
that he should remain at his post. 

Naturally this was calculated to cause Chase to more 
and more regard himself as indispensable, until finally, 
June 30th, 1864, on acaount of new differences connected 
with the appointment of an Assistant United States 
Treasurer at New York, he made the mistake of tender- 
ing his resignation once too often. This time Mr. Lin- 
coln promptly, and to Mr. Chase's great surprise and 



24 

chagrin, accepted it and clinched the matter by immedi- 
ately appointing his successor. 

He was thus suddenly left in a pitiable plight so far as 
his personal political fortunes were concerned, and but 
for the uncommon generosity of Mr. Lincoln, he would 
have so remained. 

Mr. Lincoln had been renominated and the victories 
of Grant and Sherman were every day strengthening his 
Party and his chances of election. 

All thoughtful men could see that the end of the war 
could not be much longer deferred and that, with vic- 
tory assured and Mr. Lincoln re-elected, there was re- 
newed strength with continuance in power ahead for 
the Republican party. It was a bad time for a man who 
had sustained the relations he had to the Party, and the 
war, and the administration, to drop out of the ranks 
and get out of touch with events ; but there he was, "out- 
side the breastworks," and nobody to blame but himself. 

It was a hard fate that seemed to have befallen him ; 
and such it would have been if almost anybody but 
Mr. Lincoln had been President, for most men would 
have left him helpless in his self-imposed humiliation. 
But Mr. Lincoln was a most remarkable man. He was 
enough like other men to enjoy, no doubt, the discom- 
fiture Chase had brought on himself, but enough unlike 
other men to magnanimously overlook his weaknesses 
and offenses when public duty so required. 

APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE. 

Accordingly, remembering only his long and faithful 
services and his high general and special qualifications 
for the place, he made him Chief Justice. 

From the date of his resignation until December when 
he was appointed, were probably his bitterest days. 



25 

He had nothing to do and no prospect. He made an 
effort, or at least his friends did, to secure his nomination 
for Congress from his old Cincinnati District, but so 
signally failed as to give painful evidence that he was 
not only out of office and out of power, but also out of 
favor. He was almost out of hope also when Chief 
Justice Taney died. He was conscious that he had no 
claim on Mr. Lincoln for that or any other place, not 
alone because he had petulantly deserted him at a critical 
moment, but also and more particularly because in his 
vexation of spirit he had said some very unkind things 
of him, but he did not hesitate to allow his friends to 
urge him for that high honor, and, notwithstanding 
many protests, Mr. Lincoln gave it to him. 

It would be hard to recall an instance of greater mag- 
nanimity than was thus shown by Mr. Lincoln. It was 
magnanimous because, while in most respects Mr. 
Chase's qualifications for the position were high, they 
were not of such exceptional character as to single him 
out above all other men for the place ; certainly not if we 
consider only his experience at the bar, for while the 
first six years of his life in Cincinnati were devoted to 
the practice of his profession, yet, like the same period 
with other beginners, they were not very busy years. 
He had no exceptional successes. His progress was 
satisfactory and probably all that should have been ex- 
pected, but there was nothing extraordinary to forecast 
for him the great honor of the Chief Justiceship. 

During the following thirteen years, until he was 
elected to the Senate, his time was so occupied with 
political demands that he did not have much opportunity 
for professional work, and what time he did devote to 
his law practice was taken up very largely with Fugitive 
Slave Law cases, aside from which there is no record of 
any case or employment that he had during all those 



26 

nineteen years, from 1830, when he located in Cincinnati, 
until 1849, when he was elected to the Senate, that was 
of anything more than passing importance. During all 
that time, he probably never had any single employment 
of sufficient importance to bring him a fee of so much 
as $1,000. 

It is probable that in all that time he never had a 
patent case, or an admiralty case, or any occasion to 
make any study whatever of international law, and yet 
at that point virtually ended not only his career as a 
practicing lawyer, but also his study of the science of 
the law except as an incident of his public services. 

During the next six years — until 1855 — he was a mem- 
ber of the Senate, and devoted all his time to his public 
duties and to public questions and affairs. He was next, 
for four years, Governor of Ohio, and then came the 
national campaign of i860, the election of Mr. Lincoln 
and the Secretaryship in his Cabinet, which continued 
until his resignation shortly before he was appointed 
Chief Justice. 

And yet he was, all things considered, probably the 
best qualified of all who were mentioned for the place. 
His limited experience at the bar was not without prece- 
dents. Neither Jay nor Marshall had any very consider- 
able experience of that character. 

Both of them, like Chase, were prepared for their great 
work more by their public services and studies as states- 
men, than by the general study of the law and the trial 
of cases in the courts. It was much the same with 
Taney. He had a larger experience as a practitioner, 
and was Attorney-General, but his appointment was due 
more to his general public services than his professional 
achievements, although they were highly creditable and 
his standing as a lawyer was good. 



27 

Jay was intimately identified with the formative stages 
of our GovernmenUi^institutions, and in that way was 
familiar from their very origin with the public questions 
it was thought might arise for decision ; and Marshall, a 
soldier of the Revolution and a careful student of the 
great purposes and results of that struggle was thereby 
equipped for not only his distinguished political career, 
but also for the great work for which the American 
people owe him a debt of everlasting gratitude, of so 
interpreting the Constitution as to breathe into it, with 
the docrine of implied powers, that life, flexibility and 
adaptability to all our exigencies and requirements, that 
have made it, not only a veritable sheet anchor of safety 
for us, but also the marvel of the statesmen of the world. 

With Chase, as with his illustrious predecessors, it 
was his long, varied and important public services rather 
than his professional labors that prepared him for the 
Chief Justiceship and secured him the appointment. 
They were of a character that broadened his views by 
compelling a study of the Constitution and the founda- 
tion principles of our Government in connection with 
their practical application. 

Mr. Lincoln not only understood and appreciated this, 
but he foresaw, and no doubt had much anxious concern 
on that account, that, after the restoration of peace, all 
the great transactions and achievements of his Adminis- 
tration would have to run the gauntlet of the Courts. 
The abolition of slavery, the status of the freedmen, the 
status of the seceding States, the status of their inhabi- 
tants — the leaders who had brought about the war, and 
the masses of the people who had simply followed them, 
the confiscation of property, all the great war measures 
that Congress had enacted, including the legal tender 
acts, he knew must in the order of events sooner or later 
come before the Supreme Court for final adjudication. 



28 



It was natural to conclude that no man was so well 
qualified to deal intelligently and satisfactorily with 
these questions as he who, in addition to having good 
general qualifications, had been a capable and respon- 
sible participator in all that gave rise to those questions. 

There were many other great lawyers, but there was 
no other lawyer of equal ability who had sustained such 
a relation to these subjects. 

Mr. Lincoln had a right to expect that with Chase 
Chief Justice the fruits of the war, in so far as he might 
have occasion to deal with them, would be secure, and 
this doubtless turned the scales in his favor. 

In large m^easure he met every just and reasonable ex- 
pectation. In so far as he failed to do so, it was generally 
charged, whether rightfully or not, to his ambition to be 
President, which he should have put away forever on 
his accession to the Bench, but which he appears to have 
indulged until his very last days. 

This is particularly true of his failure to bring Jeffer- 
son Davis to trial ; and with respect to his rulings in the 
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson; and his opinions in 
the Legal Tender cases. 

Most men are now agreed that he acted wisely as to 
Davis, and that he ruled honestly andv^ost cases cor- 
rectly on the trial of Johnson. 

THE LEGAL TENDER CLAUSE. 

As to the Legal Tender cases he was at the time and 
has been ever since much censured, aside from the 
merits of the controvery, on the ground that he tried to 
undo on the Bench what he did, or at least was largely 
responsible for as Secretary. No complete defense 
against this charge can be made, but the case against 
him is not so bad as generally represented, for, while 



29 

finally assenting to such legislation, and from time to 
time as occasion required availing himself of its pro- 
visions, he was at first opposed to the step on the 
ground of policy and from doubt as to the power, and 
at last reluctantly yielded his objections rather than his 
opinions, only when the necessities of the Government 
seemed to imperatively so demand, and when Congress 
had fully determined to resort to the measure anyhow. 

For him to have longer opposed would have been 
futile to prevent it, and could not have had any other 
effect than to discredit the notes when issued, breed dis- 
cord, and put him at cross purposes with men, as com- 
petent to judge as he, with whom it was his duty to 
co-operate in every way he could to accomplish the great 
purpose all alike had in view of preserving the Union. 

The situation was so unlike anything with which we 
are to-day familiar, that it is not easy to recall it. 

Instead of the annual revenues of the Government 
aggregating the abundant and almost incomprehensible 
sum of seven hundred millions of dollars, as they do 
to-day, they amounted then from all sources to less than 
fifty millions of dollars. 

Instead of two per cent, bonds selling readily in whole- 
sale quantities, as they do to-day at a premium, six per 
cent, bonds were sold only with difficulty, and in drib- 
bling amounts at a ruinous discount. 

In lieu of a national paper currency, good everywhere 
as the gold itself, we had only an inadequate supply 
of notes of uncertain and varying value, subject to no 
regulation or provision for their redemption in gold, 
except such as was imperfectly provided by the different 
States. 

Few saw and appreciated until the second year of the 
war in what a gigantic struggle we were involved, and 
how stupendous must be the financial operations and 
provisions of the Government to meet its requirements. 



3C 

For this reason no comprehensive or well considered 
plans were adopted at the start, as foresight of what was 
coming would have suggested, but on the contrary 
mere temporary expedients, such as the sale of bonds 
in comparatively small amounts, and to run for short 
periods, demand loans, interest and non-interest bearing 
Treasury certificates and notes, demand notes, and what- 
ever form of obligation could be utilized for the time 
being were resorted to, and relied upon to tide over what 
it was hoped and believed would be, although a most 
severe, yet only a temporary emergency. 

As the war progressed and we met with reverses in 
the field, that indicated it would be prolonged, specie 
payments were suspended, and the national credit be- 
came more and more strained and impaired. 

In consequence it became practically impossible to 
longer raise by such methods the necessary funds with 
which to conduct the Government and prosecute the 
war, or even to transact satisfactorily the private busi- 
ness of the country. 

The point was finally reached where the people must 
come to the financial help of the Treasury, or the Union 
must perish. 

Chase saw as well as others that the law of the case 
was Necessity, but he did not yield without an effort to 
have attached as a condition, provision for a uniform 
National Banking System. The condition was not ac- 
cepted, but was provided for later, and long before the 
legal tender cases arose. 

Whatever else may be said about the legal tender 
clause, it is a fact of history that the effect for good on 
the Union cause was instantaneous and immeasureable. 
If it was a forced loan from the people, they gladly made 
it. If it was a hardship on anybody, it was not com- 



31 

plained of by any friend of the Union. It gave confi- 
dence and imparted courage, and from that moment suc- 
cess was assured, not only for the Union cause, but for 
everybody connected with it, and especially for Chase 
himself, for without it his administration of the Treasury 
Department would have been a dismal and mortifying 
failure. 

Such a mi.easure, arising from such a necessity, and 
accomplishing such results, was as sacred as the cause 
it subserved, and, aside from the wholesale disasters in- 
volved, it never should have been called in question by 
anybody, especially not by anyone who had the slightest 
responsibility for its enactment, and least of all by a per- 
sonal or official beneficiary. 

It is both impossible and unnecessary, if not inappro- 
priate, to here discuss the legal propositions involved in 
the legal tender cases, but, on the other hand, it is both 
appropriate and essential to the completeness of these 
remarks to speak of Chief Justice Chase's attitude with 
respect to them. 

No one can make a better defense for him than he 
made for himself. 

In Hepburn vs, Griswold, anticipating the criticisms 
he knew must follow his decision that the legal tender 
clause was unconstitutional as to debts previously con- 
tracted, he said, manifestly by way of attem.pted personal 
justification : 

"It is not surprising that amid the tumult of the 
late Civil War, and under the influence of apprehen- 
sions for the safety of the Republic almost universal, 
different views, never before entertained by Amer- 
ican statesmen or jurists, were adopted by many. 
The time was not favorable to considerate reflection 
upon the constitutional limits of legislative or execu- 
tive authority. If power was assumed from patri- 
otic motives, the assumption found ready justifica- 



32 

tion in patriotic hearts. Many who doubted yielded 
their doubts; many who did not doubt were silent. 
Some who were strongly averse to making govern- 
ment notes a legal tender felt themselves con- 
strained to acquiesce in the views of the advocates 
of the measure. Not a few who then insisted upon 
its necessity, or acquiesced in that view, have, since 
the return of peace, and under the influence of the 
calmer time, reconsidered their conclusions, and 
now concur in those which we have just announced. 
These conclusions seem to us to be fully sanctioned 
by the letter and spirit of the Constitution." 

In the Legal Tender Cases he amplified this some- 
what, but without addiag to its strength. 

His opinions in these cases were in dignified style and, 
from his point of view, very able ; but there was then 
and still is, and perhaps always will be much difference 
of opinion as to their merit. 

In all other respects his work as Chief Justice is now 
universally considered highly creditable — some of it par- 
ticularly so — especially his opinion in Texas vs. White, 
which he regarded with great pride and satisfaction as a 
sort of culminating fruit of his life's labors. His opinions 
were usually brief and always clear and strong. They 
cover almost every phase of the litigation growing out 
of the Civil War and the reconstruction acts that fol- 
lowed, and all the decisions of the Court, while he pre- 
sided, remain unquestioned, except, inferentially, the 
constitutionality of the income tax. 

He died May 7, 1873, in the sixty-sixth year of his 
age, after only eight years of service on the Bench ; but 
they were years of great anxiety to the American people, 
for, during all that time, the country's destiny was in a 
large measure in the hands of the Supreme Court. On 
its decisions depended the issues of the war — whether 
to be upheld and made secure or overthrown and brought 



33 



.crhir The Court was equal to all requirements and 
work of regeneration and preservation that Chase a^ 

dates The one dealt with the construcfon of our gov- 
ernment, the other with its reconstruction. The labors 

°^'t hTd^tntntent to devote himself to his judicial 
work exclusively, he would have ^e- spared much *a 
was disagreeable and his fame would have been brighter 

* AU hfs life, until his last two years, he had robust 
health unlim ted energy, and an almost ^-^onMe 
disposltL to participate in the general conduct of pubhc 

^'^itconsequence, while Chief Justice he was, in what 
was regarded as a'sort of intermeddling way, constan^ y 
giving attention to questions that belonged to Congre^ 
Z other departments of government, arid was from 
ttae to time freely offering advice and makmg sugg - 
ti"ns as to legislative enactments and governmental 
policies but, more unfortunately still, ^e was al the 
while listening to the suggestions of unw.se friends and 
:t e flatLer"; about the Presidency. Much work was 
done for him with his knowledge and approval to secure 
the Republican nomination in 1868, but early in tha 
vear seeing there was an irresistible sentiment in favor 
^ C'enerafcrant, he withdrew himself from the rac. 
If he had remained out there would have been but little 
criticism, but he was scarcely out of the Repub -n -« 
until he was entered for the Democratic. While the im 
peachment trial of President Johnson was yet m prog- 
ress he signified a willingness to become the Democratic 
candidate and set forth in letters to his friends that mas- 



34 

much as the slavery questions had all been settled there 
was nothing in his political beliefs inconsistent with the 
principles of Democracy in which he had always been 
a believer. For a time there seemed strong probability 
that he would be the Democratic nominee. But it is 
familiar history that before his name could be presented 
the Convention was stampeded to Governor Seymour. 
Naturally there were charges that he was influenced, on 
account of his Presidential candidacy, by political con- 
siderations, and in this way he was shorn of much of the 
dignity, confidence and influence that rightfully belonged 
to him in his high office. He suffered in this way, not 
only as Chief Justice, but also as a man. This is espe- 
cially true of his candidacy in 1868 for the nomination 
first by the one party and then by the other, for at that 
time there was such a radical difference between the 
parties, and so much bitterness of feeling, that it was 
incomprehensible to the average mind how any honor- 
able man could so lightly, and with such apparent equal 
satisfaction to himself, belong to first the one and then 
the other, and with like zeal seek, or at least be willing 
to accept, the honors of both. 

The explanation is in the fact that it was the weakness 
of a strong man. He was so conscious of his mental 
powers and of his qualifications by reason of his long 
public service, to make a capable and efficient Chief Mag- 
istrate, that it was easy for him to think his claims for 
such recognition better than those of others ; especially 
others who had been differently trained, as Grant had 
been, and, therefore, to believe that his friends were 
right in their judgment that he was, for just reasons, the 
people's choice, and that it was his duty to his country, 
as well as to them, to become their candidate. 

With all his faculty for measures he had but little for 
men. He was himself so simple-minded, truthful and 



35 

straight-forward in his dealings with others that he 
seemed incapable of understanding how untruthful and 
deceitful others were capable of being in their dealings 
with him, especially if their pretensions were in accord 
with his own views and desires. 

As time passes these features of his career will fade 
out of sight and be forgotten. Already he has taken his 
proper place in history, and in the appreciation of the 
American people, as the great figure he really was — a 
strong, massive, patriotic, fearless and controlling char- 
acter in the settlement of the mighty questions that 
shook to their foundations the institutions of our Gov- 
ernment. He will be remembered also for the purity of 
his life, for his domestic virtues, for his deeply religious 
nature, ever depending on Divine help, and for that love 
and zeal for humanity that made him brave social ostra- 
cism and sacrifice, if necessary, all chance of personal 
political preferment that he might champion the cause of 
the slave and break the power that held him in fetters. 
In the light of true history the consistency of his conduct 
will not be determined by the record of his party affilia- 
tions, but by the constancy of his devotion to the cause 
that filled his heart and dominated all his political ac- 
tions. Measured by that test, few men have run a 
straighter course or done more to merit a high place in 
the esteem of their countrymen. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 897 478 5 



